I’ve had luck with the Skybound boxes on occasion having a red foil variant I then sell.
I bought that local collection for $300 when the guy was moving of the longboxes and one shortbox and really enjoyed going through it and selling the snazzy stuff for a solid profit.
I got that, “Hero Trade” comic from Bad Idea for $50 and sold it for a chunk.
I bought an AOC Wonder Woman recalled cover once for $300 and sold it for double.
That’s the big stuff that comes to mind.
Got back into comics when I moved to Nashville back in 2014. I didn’t know what was popular at the moment, but I knew first appearances were what I needed to go after. I got Ultimate Fallout 4 for $8 and held onto it- wish I had kept buying them. My mindset was 1 copy for the collection and move on to something else. Edge of Spider-Verse 2 paid $10 in 2015. Cover price for 1st Silk same year. Leads to my biggest regret- passing on another cover price Amazing Spider-Man 4 in 2017 because- I had one for the collection. I wasn’t quite into flipping them yet.
My best pick ups over the last 5 years or so, since I got back into collecting after a 20+ year hiatus, were;
Star Wars #42, paid $100 CDN 1 year ago. Invested another $50 for pressing and grading (came back CGC 9.8). Sold for $1600+ a few weeks ago.
Iron Fist #14, paid $600 CDN about 2 years ago. Invested another $50 for pressing and grading (came back CGC 9.8). It’s valued at around $3-$4 G’s.
UFO #4 cover A, paid $20 3 years ago. Graded at 9.8.
ASM#300 9.6 CGC, paid $400 5 years ago.
Maximum Carnage #1 Acclaim variant. Paid $5 three years ago. Graded at 8.0.
My two DV3 1:25s (9.8 and 9.6, respectively) are looking like solid investments ATM.
Picked up a Heir to the Empire #1 for $1 about 6 months ago.
There are many more, but those stick out in my mind.
My biggest fail was coming across an Albedo #2 (my IF14 came from the same collection) before I knew what Albedo #2 was. It was high grade, and the shop wanted $1000 CDN for it. I realized a few days later exactly what it was, went back about a week later, and it was gone. Live and Learn. (All prices are CND).
A few off the top of my head are…
New Mutants 86 and 98
Uncanny X-Men 266
All 3 plus about 50 more books came from the same lot I bought, averaged about 60 cents a book. Sold a handful of them(Mutants 86 and Uncanny 266) for a couple hundred.
Got a full run of Swamp Thing vol 1 and vol.2, minus 8 issues (vol 1 issue 1 and random issues in vol 2) for $87
Edge of Spider-Verse 2 for 50 cents, sold for $75
Spider-Man Chromium (Marvel Collectible Classics) for $20, at a comic con of all places
I have a bunch more… I’ve been very lucky finding good books in odd places.
Hello People,
I read frequently but do not post often, but I have a good story of a flip.
About 15 years ago I walked into a shop that I had been to before, but was not my regular shop. The owner was pretty rude and the store was not very customer friendly as the owner and his friends, about 5-6 of them, seemed to set up chairs near the front of the store and joke around loudly without acknowledging customers as they walked in. On Wednesday, this owner would not let you look through new releases until after 3:00 pm or so since his process involved putting the new releases on the new release wall, and then pull his subscriber’s pulls all while he goofed around with his friends.
One day on lunch I walked in and the owner was there with a couple of friends and he actually acknowledged me and said, we are closing down, all back issues are $1. I proceeded to load up on a lot of back issues. This was not during the speculation height of today as Iron Man was not even on the radar (which in my mind kicked off this current collector boom) and I pulled lots of decent runs of books with plenty first appearances.
When I got to the Sandman section there was a Sandman 8. At the time this was probably a $10 book at best. I looked it over and saw that it was maybe a NM- at most. I was close to passing on it, but at a buck I threw it in. I took it home and put it aside and didn’t think twice. It wasn’t until a few years later that I pulled the book out as I was re-bagging some books while organizing the collection. As I glanced through the opening pages I saw that this was the Editorial Edition that announced Vertigo as an imprint and it was a recalled book. At this time I was not a seller of comics, but I was pleased that I had scored a recalled book.
It was not until 2014 after being married for some years, buying my first home, and having some children that I began to find a need to sell some books to supplement my meager income. I made a killing on a lot of books dug out of .50 cent bins and dollar bins, but in hindsight what some of those same books are fetching now can make me regret selling so early, but not too much regret, as my family needed the money.
So one day I decided to take out the Sandman 8 Editorial Edition and research Ebay for completed sales with none to be found. I would have been happy to make $100 on it since I had no Idea. The auction opened and the bids started. People were accusing me of shill bidding and accusing me of all kinds of nonsense as the bids kept going up. Finally some guy from the UK hit me up and asked if I would ship international (as I had listed for domestic only). He informed that he would win this book and the cost did not matter to him as he had set funds aside to acquire this book whenever one surfaced.
The bidding closed at $800. I don’t know what Sandman 8 Editorials go for now, but the last time I saw a completed listing it was in the thousands for graded copies.
I though back to the owner of the shop who closed because of slow business. He was sitting on several key books which even at the time, would have generated some cash flow.
I have more stories, but that is easily the greatest flip.
Geee… I can’t imagine why this guy would be “closing down”… 
Seriously,
With the inventory he had, he could have easily taken the time to do some ebay work to supplement his income.
His loss was my gain.
My best flip was buying a few pages of out a book called “INDIAN TRIBES of NORTH AMERICA”. It was a print of an famous Warrior. I paid less than a dollar for it and flipped for $2,100.
Someone who doesn’t greet customers probably shouldn’t be in business anyways if they’re goal is to just sit around and talk to their friends.
That’s awesome!
As I have gotten older and been a comic collector for 30+ years I am interested in early examples of the comic form…looking for a small/partial print of “8-Deer Tiger’s Claw” and “Bayeux Tapestry.”
The originals are beyond my current funding possibilities. 
I agree. I did not feel bad for him in the slightest. A couple of great shops have taken his place in the market.
I preordered 33 copies of the last ronin. 
I did well with last Ronin. Sold 7 copies of the regular. Kept one. Sent one to a friend who sent me the Ashcan. Sold 3 1:10 variants, sold 3 1:25 variants, sold the Momoko virgin variant. All in all made about a grand on the last ronin
Quite a few good buys, found a Saga #1 1st print at HPB for a dollar. Bought an ASM #300 for the equivalent of 30 cents at a used book store once when abroad. Got Hero Trade #1 for free from my LCS (the owner loves to support independents so he actually ordered 10 copies after receiving the 1st one free). I guess the most opportunistic flip was pre-ordering 100 copies of the Ultimate Fallout #4 Halloween ComicFest from DCBS for $0.40 each to giveaway to trick or treaters and for random giveaways online. Still had around 50 copies left when they spiked along with the 1st printing so sold all of them for $25 each.
I actually focus a lot more on graphic novels, won’t mention which ones but there’s a particular one I’ve bought used about 20 times for around $15 that I regularly sell for $250 plus.
Yeah, there’s some money to be made with graphic novels and omnibuses.
I collect old hand painted lithographs also. Anything on Native Americans or early American history. Plus books on these subjects. Like you I was going to keep this print and sell it later but I needed the money.
Way back in 2014, while I was still just a Chu lurker, @Anthony posted a link to order the humans 0 so I bought 4 at $8 each. I sent off the 4 copies to cgc I got 3 9.8s and a 10.0. It was Christmas time so I sold the 10.0 for $450 and the 3 9.8s for $100 each. A 9.9 had sold a few days prior for $550 but all in all I was happy with the flip.
Awesome story! Where is my cut?
I sing your praises?
I’ll take that.
